Mitylene
or MYTILENE (mit-ile'ne), an island of the Grecian Archipelago of Asia Minor; between lat. 39° and 39° 20′ N., lon. 25° 50′ and 26° 35' E.; area, 276 square miles. Products, corn, wine, oil, cotton, pitch, and fruits. Chief towns, Castro, or Mitylene, Molivo, and Culoni. Lesbos is said to have been peopled by the Pelasgians, who were folwed by the Ionians and the Æolians. It was made a Roman province about 48 B. C.; and during the Middle Ages received the name of Mitylene from its chief city. Mohammed II. conquered it, and annexed it to the Turkish empire, in 1462. During the War of Independence, the Turkish and Greek squadrons fought a battle off Mitylene, Oct. 7, 1824, on which occasion the Turks were defeated and their fleet was destroyed. Occupied by Allies in the World War. Pop. about 185,000.
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Mizzen
or MIZEN, the aftermost of the fore-and-aft sails of a ship; called also the spanker or spencer. Also the aftermost mast in a three-masted ship, or in those two-masted ships in which the forward mast is the larger, such as the ketch and yawl. The main is always the larger mast. When the larger mast in a two-masted vessel is forward, the one abaft, is the mizzen, when the larger mast is abaft, the one nearer the bows is the fore-mast. MJÖSEN, lake in Norway, the a largest inland body of water in' that country. It is 62 miles in length with an average width of about two miles. Its shores are an attractive summer resort.
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Mnemonics
the art of assisting the memory; a method of recalling to the mind facts, or numbers. All of the various systems that have been proposed are based on the psychological law of association, where a fact, or figure, is recalled by its association, or relation to something else more easily remembered. The familiar rhyme, "30 days hath September," is a simple illustration. Mnemonics have been used by medical students for many years to recall the names of muscles, and the order of cerebral nerves, and students in logic use devices to remember parts of syllogisms. Many of these devices depend on number and letter relations, and others on sound and rhyme relations. 'The majority of these memory aids are purely mechanical, having some value in certain studies and in salesmanship, and other commercial pursuits.
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Moabite Stone
a stone bearing an inscription of 34 lines in Hebrew- Phoenician letters, discovered by the Rev. F. Klein in 1868 among the ruins of Dhibân, the ancient Dibon. The stone was of black basalt, rounded at the top and bottom, 2 feet broad, 3 feet 10 inches high, and 14½ inches in thickness. Now stands in the Louvre at Paris. The inscription was discovered to be a record of Mesha, King of Moab, mentioned in II Kings, iii., referring to his successful revolt against the King of Israel. The characters of the inscription are Phenician.
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Moabites
a pastoral people, who inhabited the bleak and mountainous country E. of the lower part of the Jordan and of the Dead Sea. Their sovereign divinity was Chemosh, and patriotism was an essential part of their religion. They were ethnologically cognate with the Hebrews, and were compelled to become tributary to David, but about 850 B. c. shook off their allegiance to the Jewish kings, and afterward took part with the Chaldeans against the Jews. Their name no longer exists, and the remnants of the people have long been included among the Arabs. The most striking feature about the country in modern times is the immense number of rude stone monuments with which it is covered.
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Moat
in fortification, a deep ditch or trench round a fort, etc., generally filled with water. Moated houses are still to be seen in England and the continent, though the moat has lost its original significance.
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Mobangi
or UBANGI (ö-bäng'gē), river and province of Belgian Kongo. The river is the lower course of the Welle, forming part of boundary of Belgian Kongo and French Equatorial Africa. It is navigable for over 400 miles.
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Moberly
a city in Randolph co., Mo.; on the Wabash and the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas railroads; 130 miles E. of Kansas City. Here are a high school, Loretto Academy, German Parochial school, Wabash Railroad Hospital, public school library, waterworks supplied from wells, and gas and electric lights. It has manufactures of carriages, flour, flour, and tobacco, railroad machine and car shops, and a large trade in farm produce, live-stock, wool, hides, and hard woods. Pop. (1910) 10,923; (1920) 12,- 808.
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Mobile
a river of the United States, in Alabama, formed by the union of the Alabama and the Tombigbee, which unite about 45 miles above the town of Mobile. It enters Mobile Bay by two mouths.
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Mobilization
in military language, the act of mobilizing; the state of being mobilized; the calling of troops into active service; the placing of an army on a war footing or readiness for active service.
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Moccasin Flower
. See Lady'S Slipper Hops. Fruiting branch. Staminate flower
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Mocha
a seaport, and once the capital of of Yen Yemen, in Arabia; on the Red Sea, 130 miles W. N. W. of Aden. From early in the 16th century till the middle of the 17th Mocha was the port from which the coffee of Yemen was principally exported; hence called Mocha coffee. It is now an unimportant place.
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Mock Orange
2026 Editor's Note: This passage is written in a phonetic dialect used to caricature Black speech — a convention that is offensive by today's standards. It has been left exactly as printed to preserve the historical record of how such caricature appeared in everyday books. (Ed: ET 2026-07-22) a name applied in United States to the Prunus caroliniana, a small evergreen resembling the cherrylaurel. MODENA (mō'de-nä) (ancient Mutina), capital of the former duchy of Modena; on a broad plain in northern Italy, 23 miles N. W. of Bologna. The cathedral of St. Geminianus, a Romanesque building, has a fine façade; its campanile is one of the great towers of Italy. The ducal (now royal) palace, a picturesque structure of the 17th century, has an infinity of galleries, courts, and marble arches, and contains the Este library of 90,000 volumes, and the gallery of pictures, including works by Guido, and Carracci, Guercino, Correggio. Modena possesses besides a university (1678). The family of Este became its masters in 1288; and in 1452 the reigning marquis was created duke by the Emperor Frederick III. During the first half of the 19th century its dukes pursued a reactive policy against liberalism, and were expelled from their dominion in 1860. The duchy was then incorporated in the king ato dom of Italy, and afterward divided into the provinces of Modena, Reggio, and Massa-Carrara. Area of province, 1,002 square miles; pop. city about 77,000; duchy about 325,000.
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